Reversing Neuropathy: Is It Possible with Non-Medication Approaches in Coconut Creek?

Why is neuropathy a concern for many in Coconut Creek?

Unraveling the Causes Behind Neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy’s impact on life can be profound, with symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to severe impairment. In Coconut Creek, we delve into the multifaceted causes of neuropathy, which can stem from issues like inadequate blood circulation, diabetes, infections, and more. Understanding these causes is the first step towards healing.

Signs of Peripheral Neuropathy

Residents in Coconut Creek might experience:

• Numbness or tingling
• Burning sensations
• Loss of sensation
• Muscle weakness
• Sharp, penetrating pain
• Coordination difficulties

These symptoms can be indicative of underlying health conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, which require careful attention and treatment.

The Potential for Nerve Recovery

Research offers hope, showing that peripheral nerves are capable of healing. However, successful recovery in Coconut Creek hinges on correctly identifying and stopping the factors causing nerve damage.

Neuropathy Treatment Coconut Creek

A Four-Pronged Approach to Healing in Coconut Creek

Our clinic in Coconut Creek is committed to providing a path to recovery that includes:

• Determining the root cause of nerve damage.
• Evaluating the extent and type of nerve injury.
• Tailoring the treatment to individual needs.
• Creating goals to enhance the body’s healing environment, improve blood flow, stimulate nerve repair, and reduce pain.

Innovative Treatment Modalities in Coconut Creek

We’re proud to offer Coconut Creek a unique treatment system, integrating up to eight advanced technologies, including:

• Electromagnetic Infrared Therapy (LLLT)
• Electrostimulation
• Advanced Nutrition Therapy

Additionally, we combine these treatments with regular in-clinic visits and comprehensive online education to support healing.

Now Offering Nutrition and At Home Treatment for Neuropathy

The Dynamic Duo: Fuel and Activation

For nerve regeneration, our Coconut Creek patients rely on two key factors: nutritional support (fuel) and Nerve ReEducation (activation). This powerful combination fosters the perfect conditions for nerve healing.

Customized Care for Each Coconut Creek Resident

Every patient’s journey to nerve recovery is unique, requiring personalized treatment plans based on a detailed neurological and vascular evaluation.

Discover Your Neuropathy Treatment Path in Coconut Creek

We empower our Coconut Creek community with knowledge through our free neuropathy reversal seminars. These discussions cover symptoms, medical history, and treatment possibilities, ensuring informed decisions about your health care.

Home Treatments and Options in Coconut Creek

We also guide our Coconut Creek patients in complementary home treatments and self-care options to support their recovery journey.

Identifying Symptoms of Neuropathy in Coconut Creek

Common symptoms experienced by our Coconut Creek patients include:

• Numbness
• Tingling
• Muscle weakness

Exploring Additional In-Office Treatments in Coconut Creek

We offer a range of in-office treatments at our Coconut Creek clinic, ensuring a comprehensive approach to neuropathy care.

Seeking Neuropathy Solutions in Coconut Creek?

If you’re in Coconut Creek and wondering about your neuropathy treatment options, contact us to learn more about how we can help.

What Our Coconut Creek Patients Are Saying!

Golfers Elbow Treatment Coconut Creek

Golfers elbow or elbow pain stopping you from playing golf or doing daily activities?

Why are you having pain in your elbow?

Golfers elbow or pain on the inside of your elbow happens due to repetitive stress to the muscles and tendons of your forearm. The stress through swinging a golf club or other repetitive motion can cause the tissues to tear. Its galled Golfers elbow but you don’t have to be a golfer to get it. This repetitive stress causes inflammation, swelling and pain in that area. The problem with this type of injury is that it’s an overuse injury and they can be troublesome to treat if the activity that is causing the injury continues without treatment.

 

Golfers Elbow Treatment Coconut Creek

Here in Coconut Creek there are many people who suffer with golfers elbow since a lot of people here golf. Dr. Barnard has experience treating hundreds of golfers here in Coconut Creek who suffer from golfers elbow. He has had great success in resolving and preventing golfers elbow from happening. Treatment can be uncomfortable but shows great improvement quickly with the right care both at home and in office.

Now Offering Cupping Treatment for Golfers Elbow

As of March, Dr. Barnard has been performing cupping as an added treatment for the alleviation and treatment of Golfers Elbow. This therapy is very effective at alleviating tightness, promotes healing and decreases pain. Its often an overlooked form of treatment for this condition. Cupping has been around for years but its effectiveness in treating patients is great. This treatment can be used all over the body to improve a wide range of issues.

More information about cupping to treat Golfers Elbow!

What is cupping Golfers Elbow?

Cupping uses plastic dome shaped cups with a specialized air device on the end. A suction device pulls the air out of the cup drawing the tissue up by creating a vacuum. The application of this will increase blood flow to the area, separating tissue layers, breaking up scar tissue, removing waste products and stretching tissue. The treatment only last 3-5 minutes and the results can be seen visibly on the skin. It is very visual for the patient and the doctor because the problem areas often react more than non-problem areas.

If you are suffering from Golfers Elbow or pain on the inside of your elbow from either playing golf or other daily activities, book today so we can evaluate what treatment is best for you. Dr. Barnard will setup a custom treatment plan that’s right for you so we can get you back to doing what you love. Unfortunately, the longer you wait on treatment, the harder it is to treat which means it will take longer to correct.

At Home Treatment Golfers Elbow!

Insert Picture Here-Tagged Coconut Creek

The most common at home treatment for Golfers Elbow is forearm stretches. Extend the effected arm straight out in front of you with your palm facing the floor. Bring the back of your hand towards you while using your opposite hand to pull the tips of your fingers back further. You should feel a stretch in your forearm and inside elbow. You will do this for 3 sets of 10 seconds with each time pushing farther. While you are doing this you can switch directions and stretch the forearm the other way.

Here are some of Dr. Mike’s favorite at home exercises for Golfers Elbow!

Symptoms of Golfer’s Elbow

1. Pain on the inside elbow.
2. Weakness in wrist.
3. Inability to grip or hold objects .
4. Stiffness in your elbow.
5. Numbness or tingling in hand, usually the ring finger or little finger.

Can Chiropractic Treat Golfers Elbow? Treatment Options Golfers Elbow in Coconut Creek.

Dr. Barnard’s Treatments are customized for your needs because we know that not everyone is the same but we do follow some guidelines.

1. Treatment plans can vary from 6-20 visits depending on the severity, duration of symptoms and re-occurrence. A through evaluation will be given to determine needs.
2. Treatment for Golfers Elbow include:

• Adjustments
• Ultrasound
• MRT (Muscle Release Technique)
• IASTT (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Technique)
• Cupping
• At home instructions

IASTT (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Technique) for Golfers Elbow.

Another effective treatment for golfers elbow is IASTT. This technique is very effective for breaking down scar tissue and adhesions that can preventing the muscles from healing and functioning properly.

Suffering from Golfers Elbow or inside elbow pain?

What Our Coconut Creek Chiropractic Patients Are Saying!

Coconut Creek Chiropractic Treatment for Headaches!

Many people suffer from headaches and migraines that can be debilitating. Our chiropractor, Dr. Barnard has known people that spend more hours in their rooms then they do functioning out in the world because their headaches have been so bad. Or maybe you don’t get that severe of a headache but you get them often enough that it affects your mood or productivity? The scary part is that some people deal with this almost their entire life. That is truly is no way to live.

What if I told you that there might be a natural way to get rid of your headaches without the unnecessary use of drugs or surgery? Wouldn’t you want to know more? Our Coconut Creek Chiropractor is discussing that very thing.

Types of headaches our chiropractor treats

First we need to discuss what a headache is. There are two types of headache categories. First is a primary headache, which makes up 90% of headaches and the second is secondary headaches. Secondary headaches are something that can be life threatening such as a brain bleed, infection etc. For the purpose of this article we will be focusing on primary headaches such as tension, cluster and migraine type headaches. But what causes the head to hurt? Conditions our chiropractor can treat.

Your brain does not have pain fibers so the brain itself is not what causes the pain. Instead the blood vessels, arteries, veins in and around the brain do have pain fibers. Typically these will be pain generators in the skull. You also have a lot of muscles that run up the back of your head and covers portions of the skull. These muscles have lots of pain fibers and can be pain generators or contributors to your headaches. Its important to understand this because the answer to your headaches may be complicated or fairly simple.

Causes of Headaches

Hydration levels

 

For the average person that suffers with chronic headaches, a solution may be right around the corner. What are some of the solutions? Drinking more water might be just one of the answers to decrease your headaches. In this country we don’t drink enough water and instead try to replace it with sugary drinks or drinks that act as diuretics. This means that it makes you lose water faster. So changing your water intake may be the easiest way to change your symptoms.

Muscle/Soft Tissue Tension

For those other cases where water isn’t the fix, it might be coming from the neck.
Our Chiropractic Team says, Tension type headaches or Cervicogenic headaches are types of headaches you get from your neck and muscles. These headaches are caused from poor posture/ergonomics and the cervical curve in your neck being lost. It’s important to note that your neck needs to have a proper curve in order to function properly. After you are done reading this check out my video section. Dr. Barnard made a video on the cervical curves and what happens when you lose it. (Cervical Degeneration) The muscles in your neck go into spasm and this puts pressure on your head. This gives you the classic headache over the top of your head or across your forehead.

Neck Misalignment and Chiropractic for Headaches

The other type of headache generators can be coming from the misalignment in your neck. These misalignments put pressure on the nerves, which can refer pain to your head causing the headaches. The most popular one to do this is your Atlas. C1, aka Atlas, can be the primary cause of a lot of conditions but I have found that it is usually the culprit when it comes to headaches. This bone can shift out of place putting pressure and causing dysfunction in your neck. The brain stem enters your spinal canal here and this misalignment can put pressure on the spinal cord causing issues. Its important to make sure that this isn’t the case because this can cause a whole host of problems further down the spinal cord and NOT JUST HEADACHES.

Other Causes of Headaches

Its important to note that there are many other reasons for headaches such as sinus infections or sinus headaches. Your TMJ can be another reason for headaches or neck pain. Many people grind their teeth or clench their jaw at night which can also be a contributory factor. Blood pressure can be another reason for headaches and the list goes on. That’s why its important to find out the cause.

Coconut Creek Chiropractic Solutions For Headaches

What’s the solution for chronic headaches? Coming in and getting a detailed consultation and examination done with some X-rays is your first step by your Coconut Creek Chiropractor. Finding out the root cause of your headaches is the primary goal. Headaches are just a symptom of a larger problem. Finding that problem takes exploration. Here at the office we do just that. Once we find out what the cause of the problem is we can then go about treating you and getting back on the road to a better and healthier life. The scary thing to think about is if you spend any amount of time in a room because of your headaches, that’s taking away from your life. You get one life so lets not let something that may be fixable ruin it. Let me help you!

 

Dr. Michael Barnard

What Our Coconut Creek Chiropractic Patients Are Saying!

To be or not to be, that is the question! Sciatica is a word that gets thrown around a lot as a self-diagnosis. It’s a common term used for low back pain that travels down into the leg. But do you truly have sciatica? What is sciatica? We are going to discuss the differences between sciatica and those other conditions that can cause symptoms like sciatica.

First, lets define sciatica. The sciatic nerve starts in low back where the nerves exit the spinal column through the sacrum. These nerves that exit the sacrum form whats called the sacral plexus. As the nerves run down towards the glute they form one giant nerve, which is your sciatic nerve. This nerve travels down the back of the leg to the knee where it splits into the tibial nerve and the common fibular nerve. Now it’s important to note that this nerve passes under and close to the piriformis muscle, which sits under the glute max muscle. We will talk about this later.

Sciatica vs. Radicular Symptoms

So what are symptoms of true sciatica vs. radicular symptoms? True sciatic symptoms occur when you have pain that runs down the low back, into the back of your leg and into your foot along the nerves. Pain typically passes the knee joint which is a hallmark of this condition. If you have symptoms that do not cross the knee then you may be suffering from another condition such as a radicular symptom.

Sciatica Causes

Some of the causes of sciatica are disc herniation and piriformis syndrome. A herniated disc is when the disc material in between the vertebra comes out and starts to put pressure on the nerve. This can cause severe pain and travels down the leg. You can have numbness, tingling, weakness, foot drop or a combination of these. Another cause of sciatica is the piriformis muscle that we spoke about earlier. If this muscle goes into spasm it can contract and put pressure on the sciatic nerve causing the sciatic like symptoms. These two are some of the most common reasons to experience sciatica.

Other Causes of Sciatic Like Symptoms

Many people experience pain running down into the glute and leg but this doesn’t mean you have Sciatica. Again if the pain doesn’t cross the knee joint then chances are you don’t have sciatica. SI dysfunction (sacral iliac dysfunction) can be a cause of your pain. SI joint makes up your pelvis and this joint can cause pain that runs down the leg. This pain doesn’t cross the knee joint but can feel similar to sciatica.

Another condition that can cause sciatic like symptoms is myofascial pain or trigger points. The muscles and fascia in your body holds a ton of nerve endings and if your muscles go into spasm or contain trigger points it can cause pain to run down the back of your leg just like sciatica. Again the pain does not cross the knee joint and this is a hallmark of sciatica.

What should you do?

Having a consultation and examination done by a chiropractor is one of your best options. As a chiropractor I deal with this every day in the office and know the best ways to treat it. If it’s due to joint dysfunction or myofascial pain we have the tools and knowledge to treat these conditions and get you back to the pain free lifestyle you had.

Dr. Michael Barnard

What Our Patients Are Saying!

I get asked this question all to often in my practice and that is Ice vs Heat. So what’s the right answer? We are going to talk about a few things about both and then come up with a conclusion. This topic has many different views and has been studied a lot through the years. With the new craze of cryo therapy around, more and more people are turning to this therapy because of the quick source of relief. The truth is that cryo therapy has been going on for years and most athletes have been doing it all along. Ice baths are a form of cryo therapy. Whirl pools/hot tubs are a form of heat therapy. More people have found a way to market and mainstream this process. So lets talk about what happens when you use these therapies.

Ice has been used for many different reasons over the years. Pain management, decreasing inflammation/swelling, temperature regulation and improving muscle performance post workout are just a few of the benefits of ice therapy. But what happens physiologically when you apply ice?

When ice is applied to your body it is a superficial therapy. It can only penetrate so deep into your skin because of the density of your tissue. However it will impact the superficial tissues in a big way. The tissues and blood vessels undergo constriction. This means that the tissue gets tighter and blood vessels and capillaries get smaller. This in turn decreases the amount of blood, lymph, and chemical mediators that travel to an injured site. This is why your swelling slows down when you apply ice. Although we want the body to send the right “tools” to the injured area to help heal it, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Excess inflammation can cause compartment syndrome choking off blood vessels or nerves, which are vital to your function. This causes pain and discomfort.

Pain often follows injury due to this excess swelling in an area. This is why its important to decrease the amount of swelling. The ice helps numb the area, which causes the pain nerves to not fire as well or at all. That is why your pain starts to diminish. This also helps with muscle recovery because of the decrease in lactic acid buildup in your muscles. Helping to flush out the lactic acid speeds up recovery and improves function, which is why most athletes use ice baths or cryo therapy.

So what about heat? When heat is applied to the body the opposite happens from ice. Blood vessels become larger while the tissues relax and open up. This benefits those people with spasms and tight muscles or when you are trying to improve circulation to an area. Again this heat only goes so deep so it does not impact all the deeper tissues but it does have a big impact on the superficial.

What do you use then? My advice is to first consult a physician if you have been injured seriously. However if you have the option between ice and heat my answer is simple. I tell all my patients to use ice right after an injury. Ice will help with the swelling and pain. This is important to start the road to recovery.

If its an injury that’s been nagging for a long time then typically heat is suggested. However I often recommend a step further. This is partially why the cryo therapy centers are becoming popular. If its muscle tightness or stiffness I will often recommend heat. Depending on the injury, I often recommend an alternation between ice and heat because of the flushing that occurs, which can improve your recovery greatly.

The ice causes a vasoconstriction of the area, which decreases the circulation to the area. Then the ice is removed and heat is applied 10 minutes later. This causes a vasodilation, which floods the area with fresh blood and chemical mediators to help heal it.

So the choice is ultimately yours but my recommendations have been made. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at the office. I would be happy to talk with you.

 

Dr. Michael Barnard Jr.

What Our Patients Are Saying!